Been a while since I was last here! ^^
This week while at work I experienced a scene from a horror movie while stocking a soda cooler, and a swarm of small black ants carrying brood came rushing out of a 12 pack case of mtn dew. O.O
I thankfully work at night so I had the chance to scoop up as many as I could. I'm pretty sure I got the queen as you will see below.
My current priority is figuring out what and how to feed them.
I have wingless fruit flies, wild seed mix (for harvester ants) and raw brown sugar cubes.
I can also make honey or sugar water easily.
Size: workers are about 3mm, with queens about 4-5 mm.
When: Found/collected at 2am, Saturday, 6-17-2023. (after disturbing their sleep)
Where: Gas Station, inside. Found inside a 12 pack case of mtn cans.
Appearance: Small, black, shiny. Seem to have reddish legs and slightly rounded antennae, no visible stingers.
Behaviour: Took me a while to get them in mini outworld/tube-setup (they kept trying to climb on me).
After initally calming down they mostly sorted their brood. Now more than 24 hours later, they have organized their brood and moved some near the water source but most of the brood and the queens are staying on a bed of crushed seeds in the dry tube under the heat, there is another empty tube on the opposite side of the heat and water where there is no brood or ants.
Additionally: They are pretty fast, great climbers, but non-aggressive, or at the last too small to do any damage. No bites or stings were felt.
I think there are multiple queens. I have seen 3-4 larger ants without wings and I doubt they are soilders or majors.
Picture(s):
This is a short clip of one of the larger ants up close with decent quality.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZTpCQsgLHCo
